The French volleyball team was beaten by Brazil (3-1) on Sunday at the conclusion of the Nations League week in Orleans, during which it won only half of its matches, a ratio which complicates its qualifying race for the final phase.
The Blues, supporters of the competition, count after two weeks a victory of delay (three successes for five defeats) in the classification on the Netherlands, eighth and last qualified for the Final 8 of Gdansk (Poland) from July 19 to 23.
They will have to achieve a near-faultless performance in Annaheim (United States) during the third and final week of the preliminary phase, from July 4, to hope to participate. They will be opposed to Iran, Serbia, the United States and Germany.
Sunday, they yielded against Brazil (20-25, 24-26, 25-19, 23-25) as against Argentina in opening (3-1), for two successes against the two most modest adversaries, Cuba and Canada (3-0) each time.
The reigning Olympic champions, almost complete in Orleans after the B team lined up during the first week in Japan (one win for three losses), experienced too much waste in the first two sets.
In attack (only 10 winners in the first) and especially in service: seven faults in the second, including these two face-offs several meters outside by Stephen Boyer and Daryl Bultor, or in the net of Kévin Tillie offering the second set point , victorious, at the Auriverde.
They corrected the situation in the third set (two faults in service, 18 winning attacks including 6 from Boyer), they were also able to count on the solidity in the service of their captain (in the absence of Benjamin Toniutti) Antoine Brizard.
In the fourth set, Andrea Giani’s players experienced an air gap (from 17-15 for them to 21-18 for Brazil) before returning to 22-22 and then yielding to the Brazilian superiority, in front of the approximately 9,500 spectators at the CO’Met Arena in Orléans.
